Can't boot Vista unless Ubuntu 9.10 USB is plugged in...

[TalkUbuntu]

Welcome back to the daring adventures of TalkUbuntu! Here is the lowdown:

So, I decide I want to install Ubuntu on my flash drive. I decide to use the install feature on the disk, and just make it take up the whole drive. No problem there. It installs. When I restart my computer, I take out my flash drive to see how it turned out. Lo' and behold, GRUB was installed on my hard drive, but whatever. I let GRUB load, but there is not an OS in sight. From that, I restart my computer with the flash drive in, and everything works fine. I restarted another time without the flash drive, and tried the boot menu, but it did not show my hard drive just GRUB which didn't work...

I would like as much help as I can get. Here is what I want solved (for you simpletons):
1. Allow my computer to boot Vista (my other OS), without requiring this flash drive plugged into my computer.
2. How to correctly install Ubuntu (9.10) on a flash drive.

For those who want to make arguments on why I want to change my computer from how it is now:
Don't bother making an argument.

Thank you for your time (and hopefully effort).

[D-cat]

What happened is actually pretty normal. When the install placed grub, it by default installs to the MBR of the first hard drive. Grub is pointed to read its configuration from what ever partition you just installed Linux to, and the install doesn't know or care if that location is a removable media. The result is if the USB drive is not plugged in at that magical time in the boot sequence, grub will have no configuration to read from.

The fix for getting your Windows going again is to boot from your Windows install media, choose Recovery console, then at the prompt, type fixmbr *, that should restore your regular old master boot record and make your system boot again.

AFA loading a "persistent" Linux from a USB key, there are many tutorials available and I'm not inclined to reinvent the wheel. I suggest you check out the following site:

Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory stick | USB Pen Drive Linux

Good luck! Welcome to Linux land. Any more questions, we're here.

Edit:
* The command is different for Vista (I don't have a Vista boot CD and never had to do this on Vista, but many a times on XP and prior!). See Casper's post below.
mods: is there a way to add StrikeThrough to allowed text modifiers?

[devils casper]

Follow instructions from here to remove GRUB from MBR of Internal Harddisk having Vista. Fixmbr works for Windows 98/XP only.

[D-cat]

Not 98... that would be FDISK /MBR . Win9x (and ME) was still mostly a DOS shell (in the sense that it loaded on top of COMMAND.COM), thus still used several of the olde DOS commands.

XP and later is based on the NT kernel which doesn't rely on any command interpreter to get going; the recovery console was a scratch write, which is why it is the confusing kludgy limited interface we've come to know.

Any way, thanks for that little tidbit of Vista correction. I wonder what the command is for 7.

D-cat hangs up before he turns this into an anti-MS rant.

[egan]

I had Ubuntu working fine on a USB. Just be sure to click Advanced in the last step of the installation and choose the correct disk to install GRUB to. Then you can change the BIOS boot order to look at the USB first, which will load GRUB. If you take out the USB, then it will go on to the internal hard drive.

[TalkUbuntu]

I hate to tell you Devil's Casper, but I don't have the Vista Installation CD. Vista came installed on my computer. Is there a way that I can use the command prompt within windows? Also, when I start up the system recovery option, my computer starts up GRUB.

[egan]

Looks like there is nothing you can do... its borked. You should have backed up the MBR first if you knew you didn't have a Vista CD, since if you were to ever want to uninstall a dual boot you would need it. The System Recovery option in GRUB is Ubuntu specific.

[yancek]

You can go to the link below and download a vista Recovery CD. Might be a good idea to download EasyBCD when you get your system back to use to repair vista bootloader:

Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download — The NeoSmart Files

[TalkUbuntu]

Can't I just delete GRUB? Can I do it with a Windows 7 disc? I am planning on eventually upgrading to Windows 7...

Can I upgrade to Windows 7, and then use the Windows 7 disc?

EDIT: Thanks, I got the Vista Recovery Disc, and it works like a charm. Thanks for all your help.

[devils casper]

Not 98... that would be FDISK /MBR. Win9x (and ME) was still mostly a DOS shell (in the sense that it loaded on top of COMMAND.COM), thus still used several of the olde DOS commands.

XP and later is based on the NT kernel which doesn't rely on any command interpreter to get going; the recovery console was a scratch write, which is why it is the confusing kludgy limited interface we've come to know.

My mistake. I should have written "fixmbr for Windows XP only and fdisk /mbr for Windows 98/XP/others".

XP and other NT kernel based OSes support old DOS commands very well.
Have you tried fdisk /mbr command in Windows XP? Like fixmbr, it does the same job except in a few setups ( hidden partitions ).

Can't I just delete GRUB? Can I do it with a Windows 7 disc? I am planning on eventually upgrading to Windows 7...

In a few machines, Windows Installation CD/DVD doesn't work after Linux installation. You should clear GRUB first.

EDIT: Thanks, I got the Vista Recovery Disc, and it works like a charm. Thanks for all your help.

Glad to hear that !